The thing about earth tech in the comics is that they have been forced to be creative thanks to Superman, Aliens, and metahumans. Superman exists? Then you put your military to work on figuring how to kill the guy just in case he decides he doesn't like the current world leaders.

Note that, even if you do totally trust Superman, his existence and arrival is proof of the existence of advanced alien life, which might not even need technology go trounce humanity. So whether you desire to build ways to fight Superman, you damn well do have to build ways to fight *other* aliens.